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Book Summaries For Gender Studies

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44 views3 pages

Book Summaries For Gender Studies

Uploaded by

Goodnews Antai
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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THIS DETAILED LITERATURE

SUMMARY ALSO CONTAINS TOPICS


FOR DISCUSSION ON SO LONG A
LETTER BY MARIAMA BA.

With this work of fiction, Senegalese writer Mariama Bâ


explores the inequalities between men and women in
Senegal, Islam, and African society. Bâ creates a premise of
a fictional letter from Ramatoulaye, a schoolteacher in
Senegal, to her good friend Aissatou, now in America.
Ramatoulaye, a recent widow, is sequestered in mourning
for four months and 10 ten days, as is the custom when a
woman’s husband dies. During this time, she reminisces
about hers and Aissatou’s lives as students, then later
adapting to their roles as wives. She pensively examines the
disintegration of both their marriages using introspection
and striving to look backward with equanimity.

Ramatoulaye and Aissatou grew into adulthood at a time


when women’s liberation was gaining momentum across the
globe. It was also a time of newly-acquired independence in
Senegal and the struggle to find a fresh societal model in a
modern world. Ramatoulaye observed: “It was the privilege
of our generation to be the link between two periods in our
history, one of domination, the other of independence.”
The two friends became teachers, contributing to the new
landscape of education for girls and boys, rich and poor
alike. They were cutting edge feminists and the men they
married were modern in their views. Mawdo Bâ, suitor to
Aissatou and a caring doctor, married Aissatou, a
goldsmith’s daughter, despite Mawdo’s noble heritage.
Ramatoulaye did not renounce her religion or customs and
she still practiced many cultural traditions, yet she moved
forward as a working mother and wife. Her husband Modou
Fall wanted to help shape the country’s future, and his work
as a lawyer representing trade unions had an impact on
governmental decisions.

Trouble befell the marriages that were consummated over


twenty years earlier. First, Aissatou’s husband wed a second
wife but hoped to continue to live primarily with his first
wife. Aissatou would not settle for this and divorced him.
Three years later, when Modou Fall took a second wife, he
abandoned Ramatoulaye and her twelve children.
Ramatoulaye decided to stay legally married, though Modou
never set foot in their house again.

Five years after Modou’s betrayal, he had a heart attack and


his friend Mawdo was unable to revive him. The mourning
and burial of Modou was carried out according to tradition,
and Ramatoulaye and her co-wife mourned together in one
house as people visited to pay their respects. Ramatoulaye
was then house-bound for the rest of her mourning period. It
was during this time she found a way to make peace with the
past and to embrace the future

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